''The Threateners'' is a

spy novel Spy fiction is a genre of literature involving espionage as an important context or plot device. It emerged in the early twentieth century, inspired by rivalries and intrigues between the major powers, and the establishment of modern intellig ...

Donald Hamilton Donald Bengtsson Hamilton (March 24, 1916 – November 20, 2006) was an American writer of novels, short stories, and non-fiction about the outdoors. His novels consist mostly of paperback originals, principally spy fiction, but also crime ...

first published in 1992. It is the twenty-sixth installment of the

Matt Helm Matt Helm is a fictional character created by American author Donald Hamilton (1916–2006). Helm is a U.S. government counter-agent, a man whose primary job is to kill or nullify enemy agents—not a spy or secret agent in the ordinary sense of ...

series, and saw the return of the main character after a three-year hiatus.

Plot summary

Matt Helm (code name: Eric) is assigned to kill a drug lord after the villain orders the murder of a journalist. The story starts in Santa Fe where Matt is trying to live a normal life with Jo Beckman from the previous novel, ''The Frighteners''. At the beginning of the story, Jo has left Matt because he has taken up shooting as a hobby. One of the characters from a previous novel, ''The Infiltrators'', Madeleine Ellershaw, comes to visit Matt with a complaint that he's having her followed. Matt too suspects he is being followed. Madeleine dies violently shortly after. Matt's new friend Mark, who introduced Matt to shooting, also dies. Matt soon discovers that Mark was an author hunted by a South American drug lord for writing a book about the drug business, and that there was a price of one million dollars on his head. After Mark's death, Matt unwillingly teams up with his widow to find back up copies of Mark's book. Found out, Matt is captured and tortured. Matt fights back against his captors and after fighting out of captivity manages to kill his target and complete his mission.

References

External links

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The Threateners
' at

Titan Books Titan Publishing Group is the publishing division of the British entertainment company Titan Entertainment, which was established as Titan Books in 1981. The books division has two main areas of publishing: film and television tie-ins and cine ...

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The Threateners
' at Barnes + Noble *

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Synopsis and summary
1992 American novels Matt Helm novels {{1990s-spy-novel-stub